• Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!

Chesterfield - Sheffield via Barrow Hill

Status
Not open for further replies.

DynamicSpirit

Established Member
Joined
12 Apr 2012
Messages
8,705
Location
SE London
As discussed on this thread, one of the proposals the DfT have shortlisted for further consideration as part of the Restoring your Railways fund is restoring passenger traffic on the Barrow Hill line.

Rail Technology Magazine has published more details of this proposal here. I don't seem to be able to copy and paste any of the text from that article, but it seems to be saying that the proposal is to build some stations along the existing Barrow Hill freight line (and new stations along the Sheffield-Retford passenger line), as well as improving signalling to allow passenger trains to run, and then have a service that would go something like:
  • Chesterfield
  • Whittington
  • Barrow Hill
  • Renishaw/Eckington
  • Beighton
  • Woodhouse
  • Waverley
  • Darnall
  • Nunnery Square (change to the tram for City centre)
  • Sheffield Victoria (not the existing Sheffield station because of likely capacity issues, and in the hope of regenerating the area around Victoria).
(Existing national rail stations in italics)

Seems an interesting idea to me, although I notice looking at the map that a lot of the proposed stations are some distance from the communities they'd purport to serve.
 
Last edited:
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R

RailUK Forums

adrock1976

Established Member
Joined
10 Dec 2013
Messages
4,450
Location
What's it called? It's called Cumbernauld
I'm not too familiar with the railway geography of that area, but I thought a station at the site of the ex Midland Killamarsh West could be reopened.

This could be named as Killamarsh & Halfway (for Sheffield Supertram) being as those are reasonably large settlements next door to each other, albeit one is in Yorkshire and the other is in Derbyshire.
 

30907

Veteran Member
Joined
30 Sep 2012
Messages
20,157
Location
Airedale
I'm not too familiar with the railway geography of that area, but I thought a station at the site of the ex Midland Killamarsh West could be reopened.

This could be named as Killamarsh & Halfway (for Sheffield Supertram) being as those are reasonably large settlements next door to each other, albeit one is in Yorkshire and the other is in Derbyshire.
It is also not well sited, and I suppose it would abstract from Supertram? also

If it happens, would it be worth switching the Retford line services to Victoria, thus easing the pressures on the northern approach to Midland, or is there too much longer-distance travel via Midland? (A direct tram from Nunnery to Midland might cover that.that)
 

DynamicSpirit

Established Member
Joined
12 Apr 2012
Messages
8,705
Location
SE London
If it happens, would it be worth switching the Retford line services to Victoria, thus easing the pressures on the northern approach to Midland, or is there too much longer-distance travel via Midland? (A direct tram from Nunnery to Midland might cover that.that)

How tight are the pressures on the northern approach to Midland? If swapping Retford line services to Victoria made a difference to how many trains you could run/the reliability of trains to Rotherham and Barnsley, etc. then I could see a good case for doing that. But it would only work if you arranged for rail tickets to be valid between the station and Nunnery Square on the tram and - like you say - had direct Nunnery Square-Midland trams [*], and even then it would make making connections harder. If you could go a step further and make rail tickets valid on the tram between Cathedral and Nunnery Square, you could actually create a substantial benefit for Retford line passengers, making it easier for them to get into the town centre. A decent dedicated walking route between Midland and Victoria would help too for rail connections (1km - about 10 minutes for a moderately fast walker, so wouldn't appeal to everyone).

I suspect the answer is: If you planned it properly, you could get a net benefit from switching Retford services to Victoria - but if you didn't plan it properly, it could be disastrous, causing traffic on the Sheffield-Retford line to plummet.

[*] Didn't there use to be direct Meadowhall-Halfway trams, or have I misremembered?
 
Last edited:

Meerkat

Established Member
Joined
14 Jul 2018
Messages
8,796
Or just quadruple the northern approach to Midland! It will surely have to be done at some point anyway.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Top